Man responsible for mysterious bridge dismantling comes clean; shows zero remorse.
The mystery man responsible for dismantling the Monon Bridge over the Grand Calumet River without permits said he personally declared the structure abandoned and was doing officials a favor by tearing it down.
“I myself state that this property is abandoned,” Kenneth Morrison of Whiting said Wednesday. “It’s like a shipwreck. If a ship sinks, that’s abandoned and it’s fair game.”
Local, state and federal officials disagree.
Indiana officials on Wednesday said the state is citing Morrison for violating state water quality standards when he sent creosote-soaked railroad ties into the waterway as he dismantled the structure.
“A letter of violation will be drafted,” Dan Goldblatt, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said.
Morrison admits his work dismantling the bridge sent rail ties into the Grand Calumet River.
“We did, but we pulled them out,” he said.
The ties officials found in the river, he said, fell into the river earlier due to age and neglect.
“The steel beams had 8 to 10-inch gaps between them before I took them out over the riverbed,” Morrison said. “It was a hazard … How many parents in Hammond want their kids wandering around that kind of place?”
Read more here.
